All Alone
by Numb3rsfan
Summary: Don must solve the case alone, when Charlie is shot.
1. The Shooting

**Title: All Alone**

**Author: Numb3rsfan**

**Rating: PG-13**

**Warnings: None**

**Author's Notes: After a long break, I'm back with the first chapter to a new Numb3rs fic!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Numb3rs. Never have and never will.**

**Summary: Don must solve the case alone when Charlie is shot.**

_Five thousand dollers. Forty Eight hours. Two Brothers. One bullet._

Chapter One.

The clapping from all around the office of Don's FBI unit pulled Professor Charles Edward Eppes from his subsequent musings on his work on the see through blackboard that was in a small, inclosed room on the far side of the office.

This last case, while it had been hard on Don and his team, it had also been very hard for the resident math genius from CalSci.

Girls, woman, mothers, daughters...they had all been brutely raped, murdered, tortured and mutilated. Seeing the 'tame' pictures in the folder had made Charlie's stomach churn and he had to fight the instinct to go get sick in the bathroom while his big brother had been at the house. But the moment Don had left the house on that Monday night, Charlie had made a beeline for the bathroom and toilet where he subsequently brought up everything he had chowed down on earlier at CalSci.

Now it was over, finished, put to rest. The criminals which had turned out to be two nineteen year old American boys had been arrested and put in to jail.

Now all that was left was the clean up and the horrible pictures of the victims still hooked to the board on the wall.

As quickly and quietly as he could, Charlie gathered up his things, which consisted of a wind breaker, computer and some computer analysis' that he had printed out for the case.

With those objects, minus the wind breaker, now stored in his little pack, Charlie was now ready to leave the office...hopefully without no one stopping him to congradulate him because Charlie didn't think he could stomach that for to long...not with those pictures still very fresh in his mind.

Smoothly Charlie put on his wind breaker and grabbed his pack before he headed out. Exiting the room, Charlie squeezed past several FBI agents and took the back route to the office exit and the elevators, praying that Don wouldn't see him leave.

Glancing around, Charlie saw his big brother Don having a conversation with Megan and Colby.

_'Good. Megan and Colby can keep Don distracted long enough for me to leave.'_ Charlie thought as he tightened his grip on his pack and left the office.

Sighing slightly, Charlie swallowed painfully and headed for the elevators which were just down the hall.

Charlie tried to smile and act casual when people waved at him as he walked by, but in all actuality, Charlie wanted to find a hole to crawl in to.

Normally when this happened Charlie would lose himself in his numbers, or more specifically the P vrs NP problem. But not anymore. That problem had lost it's charm for Charlie and now he had nothing left to fall back on to help take his mind off of the case. Oh sure he could find some math problem to occupy his time but he knew that the minute Don came to the house and saw him frantically working on a math problem, he would pepper Charlie with statements like 'are you alright?', 'why are you doing this?' and 'try snapping out of your precious bubble just for once!'

Charlie knew that he wasn't ready to talk about this last case. He probably never would be.

Blinking away the tears that threatened to fall, Charlie stopped at the elevator call button and pressed the down arrow.

"Charlie?"

Hearing his name, Charlie turned his head to see David Sinclair standing there.

David was a friend of both Don and Charlie, plus he was an excellent FBI agent and a member of Don's unit.

"David, hi." Charlie greeted with a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes.

"Aren't you gonna stay? Everyone's going to the Hostel for drinks tonight. Colby's payin' for it which is a first!" David said as he studied Charlie closely.

He could see the pain in Charlie's eyes and all over his face.

The once clear, shiny eyes were now dim and withdrawn, and it was something that David had thought he would never see.

"Um..not this time David. I uh...have stuff to work on at home." Charlie lied as he continued to wait for the elevator.

"Well um...if you change your mind just give me or Don a call and we'll gladly pick you up." David said as he gave Charlie a pat on the back.

Charlie nodded his head and nearly sighed in relief with the elevator finally pinged and the doors of the elevator car opened.

Swiftly Charlie walked in and all but attacked the buttons on the inside of the car as he pressed the button for the lobby.

David watched as the doors of the car closed, before he turned and headed for the office.

--------------

"So...it starts in 11:30?" Don asked Colby who nodded his head in agreement.

"Yeah, a good show, food half price...drinks on the house. What could be better?" Colby asked casually as he glanced towards the exit and saw his friend, David Sinclair enter the room.

"Oh, I know why you suggested we go. Half price food and free drinks, huh?" Don asked with a smile on his face.

Colby shrugged his shoulders, not knowing what to say to that.

Shaking his head, Don turned away from Colby and was about to head to the smaller 'office' where Charlie was supposed to be.

"Let me grab Charlie and then..." Don began, not knowing that his little brother had already left.

"Charlie just left, Don." David said as he stopped right beside Megan and Don.

"What? He didn't wait?" Don asked as he scrunched up his eyebrows and put his famous confused look on his face.

"He looked exhausted. Plus he said he had stuff to do at home." David said.

"This latest case really took a lot out of Charlie." Megan said, as if that was the obvious answer for Charlie's behavior.

"Yeah. It's not every day you have to be at the scene when we issue the takedown." Don agreed as he thought back to earlier today.

------------

_Charlie sat in the backseat of his brother's car as they passed CalSci._

_Ever since the threat of the kidnappers/murderors became apparent, Don had become very protective of Charlie and was now 'escorting' his little brother back to his home._

_They had just passed Wilkins Street when the call came in over the police radio channel, "Suspected rapest located. All additional units needed for pursuit." And then it gave a brief run down of the person in question. After learning that this person was the same one that Don and his team were looking for, Don wasted no time in pouring on the speed and racing to the address of the residence the rapest was cornered in. Never once thinking of his brother and his safety._

_After seven minutes, Don pulled to a stop and put the car in to park. Quickly he took out his gun and opened the door as he said, "Stay in the car, and stay down, Charlie."_

_He didn't see Charlie nod as Don ran over to Megan, David and Colby who were wearing bullet proof vests and had automatic rifles in their hands._

_"The man isn't coming out Don. We tried to reason with him, and that's the result." Megan said as she pointed to the front lawn were a mutilated and shot up body lay, covered in blood._

_Don looked at the body with a practiced eye before he turned and grabbed a bullet proof vest and quickly put it on before grabbing an automatic rifle for himself._

_"He doesn't want to do things the easy way, then we'll just have to do it the hard way." Don said as he positioned his ear piece in his ear before motioning to a police man to fire in several cans of tear gas._

_The police man nodded and seconds later two canisters of tear gas were shot through the windows of the home._

_The gas filled the home and came seeping out the windows, but nothing else ever came out._

_Sighing, Don motioned for his team to take up positions outside the front door of the house._

_Once everyone was in position, Don gave the three second countdown and then nodded to Megan who kicked open the door and leapt back as Don charged in to the room, with David and Colby following. Megan came last as she looked around the gas filled room through her airmask, she saw her teammates going from room to room as the echoing words, "FBI!" resounded throughout the house._

_In short order they had rounded up two nineteen year olds who had blood stained shirts and tattoos all over their bodies._

_Also, they had found their latest victim lying motionless on a small, bloody mattress. With knives, needles, drugs and a hand held burner beside her._

_Quickly Don turned away from the grusome sight and helped to escort the two 'boys' out of the house and to the waiting police cars._

_Charlie on the other hand, being ever curious, entered the house and got a front row seat of the body. Both the one in the yard and the one in the house, before Megan saw him and ushered him back out of the house so he wouldn't have to see anymore._

_To Charlie, seeing the dead body was alot worse than the pictures he had been allowed to see. It was like a million times worse. But his mistake and those images would forever be imprinted on his brain. Always lingering in his mind to pop up at the most inoppertune times._

_Turning, Charlie walked back to Don's car and got in, never once making eye contact with his brother, who had been watching him while a local police officer was reading the two boys their Meranda rights._

_----------_

Don sighed and rubbed the back of his neck as he thought about what to do.

He had never meant for Charlie to go inside that house, but when he had escorted the two boys out, he had never noticed that Charlie had been out of the car by then!

"Maybe you should talk to him, Don. Try and help him get past this." Megan suggested when she saw Don's face.

Don nodded a little as he lowered his hand.

"Yeah, maybe you're right." He said as he grabbed his jacket and slipped in to it.

As one group, Don, Megan, David and Colby left the office and headed for the elevators.

They took the elevator down to the lobby and were walking down the long hallway when one sound made them all stop and look up, to the darkened streets outside.

BANG!

To Don and everyone else, it sounded like a single gunshot. Spurring in to action, they took out their guns and ran outside in time to see a vehicle turning a corner, but getting any I.D. from the vehicle would have been impossible because every surface, weither it was the lights, back or front, or it's license plate. It was spray painted black.

Turning his attention away from the dissipearing vehicle, he looked in the opposite direction and saw a small crowd forming around something that was lying on the ground.

Curious, Don and his team approached and parted the crowd to find Charlie lying on the street with a crimson stain growing on his chest.

Paling, Don dropped down beside his brother and yanked off of his jacket. Using it to try and stop the bleeding.

"Charlie...Charlie!" Don said with worry clearly etched in his voice.

A small moan and gasp made Don smile a little because it told him that his little brother was still alive.

Slowly Charlie opened his eyes, which were partly glazed over.

"D..Don?" He said weakly as his tired eyes searched the crowd around him.

Don squeezed Charlie's hand as he blinked back the tears that threatened to fall.

"I'm right here buddy...I'm right here." Don said.

He studied Charlie's face and with dismay saw that blood was now starting to stain Charlie's teeth and was threatening to start dripping out of his mouth.

_'Internal bleeding.'_ Don thought sadly as he tore his gaze away from his wounded brother long enough to see David putting his cellphone back in his pocket.

"Ambulance is on the way, Don." David said as he also knelt down next to Charlie and used his strong hands to help hold Charlie's head off of the ground.

Megan and Colby were busy keeping the crowds back, which was getting harder and harder as more and more people came, wanting to gawk at Charlie's bloody body.

"Charlie listen to me, you're gonna be fine. You're gonna be alright." Don said, trying to reassure his brother, who was so obviously in pain.

"So dark...cold." Charlie muttered, before he starting spouting different math equations that made Don scrunch up his eyebrows.

When he tried to get Charlie's attention, Charlie only closed his eyes and kept muttering to himself.

Looking up and down the street, Don hoped and prayed that the ambulance would get there soon, before his brother died in his arms.


	2. Don's Assignment

All Alone Chapter Two

Charlie had just exited the FBI building.

He shifted his pack, before placing the strap on his shoulder and starting to walk down the street.

Only for a second did he contemplate going back and talk with Don, but that idea was almost immediatly shot down.

"How can I talk to Don, when I can't even discuss the problem in my own head?" Charlie whispered to himself as he walked past a DO NOT LITTER sign that stood a few feet away from the entrance to the Federal building.

So entranced was Charlie's gaze on the road ahead that he didn't notice the vehicle approaching, nor did he see the vehicle turn off it's lights and it's passenger window roll down.

What he did register was the sound of a gunshot, and the fiery pain as his legs gave out and he fell down to the unforgiving concrete.

All Charlie knew was the pain in his chest and the roaring in his ears. He wasn't aware of anything else. Not the crowd forming, not his brother parting the crowd and yelling his name.

When the pain in his chest worsened, Charlie guessed that someone had come to his aid, and his thinking was confirmed when through the roaring in his ears, he heard his brother's voice. It was like a light, guiding him home, back to the world of consciousness.

For once, Charlie was in to much pain to talk for long, but he did whisper Don's name ever so softly.

Charlie could clearly taste the blood on his tongue as it filled his mouth and threatened to pour out on to his cheek and on to the ground.

Dimly Charlie heard his brother's false words of comfort and knew that his big brother was trying really hard not to lose his cool.

"So dark..cold." Charlie muttered as his world faded around him to be replaced with darkness. A darkness filled with numbers.

Charlie parted bloody lips and started to mutter the numbers he saw, thinking that was what he was supposed to do.

Meanwhile, Don was still holding his jacket over Charlie's wound, while still glancing down the road, waiting and watching for the ambulance.

"Damn it David, where is that ambulance?" Don asked as he looked across at his friend who was still holding Charlie's head in the palms of his hands.

David looked up at Don and saw not the calm, cool face of his boss, Don Eppes. Instead he saw the worried, slightly aggitated and close to losing it, face of big brother Don Eppes.

"I called them, they should be on their way." David replied smoothly as he glanced down at Charlie's bloody form.

Don grimaced as he once again glanced down at his brother, and the fact that he was still losing so much blood. Perhaps to much, and there was nothing that Don could do to stop it.

_'How did it come to this? My baby brother dieing right here in my arms, when I should have been there to protect him. Charlie shouldn't have been here, he should have been at home...or at Calsci with his numbers...where he belongs. Oh God, this is my fault...it's almost as bad as if I had pulled the trigger myself. It's my fault that Charlie got shot...my fault.'_

Don was pulled out of his thoughts when Megan touched his shoulder and pointed to the ambulance just pulling to a stop.

Looking up, Don watched as the two paramedics lept out of the ambulance and pulled out the stretcher and a bag of supplies before rushing over to Don's side.

Not saying a word, Don moved out of the way and watched as the paramedics moved the blood stained coat out of the way before taking a look at the wound itself.

"Lost alot of blood." One paramedic said.

"Need's IV's and a tranfusion." The other said.

Different names of different IV's and drugs went over Don's head. All he could do and think about was his baby brother lying there, looking so helpless, frail and...dead.

_'dead.'_

With a look on his face that would have ripped your heart out, or would have melted steel, Don watched as the paramedics placed Charlie's body on the stretcher before loading him up in to the ambulance.

_'If Charlie dies it'll be my fault. God, why'd I get him involved? Why?Why?Why?'_ Don thought as the ambulance pulled away.

Suddenly Don's cellphone rang, nearly scaring the man out of his skin.

Glancing down, Don grabbed his cellphone and made to throw it down, but Megan grabbed it out of his hands and said, "Government issue. You can't just destroy it."

Don didn't say anything. He just turned away, not listening as Megan answered the phone.

"Hello, Agent Reeves here. Uh no this is his phone but he's unavalible at the moment. I see, well yes, sir I'll tell him. Sir um, Agent Eppes has some serious family problems at the moment, I don't think...ah, yes sir. Goodbye."

Megan closed up the phone and looked at Don.

"That was Deputy Director Vernon. It seems that a bank, jewelry store and supermarket were just robbed." Megan said.

"So? Let the police handle it." Don replied as he glanced down at his brother's blood that stained the pavement.

"Director Vernon wants you to handle it." Megan replied casually.

"Why? I can't right now, I gotta think about Charlie." Don said.

Megan sighed before saying, "I told him that but it seems that the perps who robbed the bank, jewelry store and supermarket are part of the same group, and that they're out to get you."

"What?" Don asked.

"Reports from police officers on the scene say that painted on the back walls of each robbery were the words 'Death and Distruction, Agent Eppes.' So, Vernon wants you to handle it. He did make it an order." Megan said.

Don ran a semi bloody hand through his hair.

He knew that he should screw the order and follow the ambulance, but if the robbery's and Charlie's shooting were done by the same hand, then Don wanted very much to take them down.

"Alright, let's move it!" Don said as he took back his cellphone and clipped it to his belt.

As one, Don, Megan, David and Colby ran for the parking lot and jumped in to two seperate vehicles.

Don and Megan in one, and David and Colby in the other.

As Don pulled out, David who was driving the other FBI Chevy Suburban shook his head and said, "I've never seen Don so worked up before."

"Well, his kid brother did just get shot." Colby replied.

David nodded his head and thought back to finding Charlie lying on the ground.

"Out of all the people on our team that could get shot, I never thought it'd be Charlie." David said.

"Yeah," Colby agreed, "And right when we'd need him the most."

"I know it." David said as he followed Don up the street and towards the scene of he first robbery.


	3. You Don't Have To Suffer Alone

All Alone Chapter 3

Don pulled the Suburban to a stop at the bank, with David pulling to a stop right behind him.

Slowly Don exited the Suburban and walked over to the bank manager and a police man, who was still trying to get the bank manager's statement.

With a practiced eye Don took in the damage to the bank itself. The front window was gone, having been shot or smashed earlier. Bits of glass now lined the pavement directly under where the window should have been.

Besides that, there were specks of blood all along the pavement, plus a few bullet casings here and there.

Reaching his still semi blood covered hand in to his pocket, Don pulled out his FBI badge and showed it to the police man and the bank manager.

"Don Eppes, FBI. This is Agent Megan Reeves, Agent Sinclair and Agent Granger." Don said, pointing out the members of his team.

The bank manager looked at the badge, before he looked back up at Don with a lost expression on his face.

"What happened here?" Megan asked. She had decided to take over asking the questions because she didn't think that Don was quite up to it at the moment, which was quite understandable.

Heck, she didn't really know why Charlie being shot wasn't affecting her like it was Don.

Was it her training? Was it the fact that she wasn't really related to Charlie? But that wasn't the case.

Everyone on the team, Don, David, Colby, her and Charlie...they were all a family, and when one of them gets hurt its supposed to affect the rest...right?

Megan snapped herself back to the present when the bank manager pointed at his bank and said, "Two men threw a grenade at the window. Once it exploded they climbed through with Semi aut's I think."

"Excuse me? 'Semi aut's'?" Megan asked, not really understanding what the bank manager was talking about.

"Semi automatics." Colby supplied for her, before he and David took a look inside the bank, to gather evidence for the case.

"Yes, Semi automatics. They starting yelling at people to drop to the floor. They...they started shooting people who didn't drop fast enough." The bank manager continued.

Megan kept her gaze soft, yet professional as she nodded her head, encouraging the manager to continue with his tale.

"Then they entered the vault and cleaning out all of the ten's and fifty dollar bills. They also took a few bars of gold, too. After that they grabbed some red paint and painted those words on the wall, before leaving."

Agent Reeves wrote down everything the man had said, while Don and the rest of the team had taken a look around.

While David and Colby were inside, Don was looking at the remains of the window.

"Why use the door when you can blow up a window." He muttered to himself, before he stepped through the window and went over to David and Colby, who were looking at the words on the wall.

"Think it could be some kind of political statement?" David asked Don.

For a second Don didn't answer. He just stared at the words, as he tried to picture the men who had painted it on there.

"Don?"

Sighing, Don shrugged his shoulders and finally said, "I don't know if it's a statement, but I tell ya, if these men are the same ones who shot my brother, then when I catch em' they are gonna be in a world of hurt. No one messes with my brother!"

David nodded his head at Don's words, as he said, "I'm with you there Don, but we don't know if it was the same perps."

"I think we do." Megan said as she entered the building after finishing up with the bank manager.

Don, David and Colby turned to face her, but Don's face was more pleading than the rest of them.

"What'd you find out?" He asked.

"The bank manager was able to give me a fairly detailed description of the perps get away vehicle. It matches that of the vehicle that we saw fleeing the scene of Charlie's sh...shooting." Megan said, saying the last word softly as she lowered her gaze for a second.

Slowly Don cracked his knuckles as he itched to wrap his fingers around the throats of the men who had hurt his brother like they had.

"I'm gonna kill em'." He muttered to himself as he tried to control his anger, while he was still infront of his team.

"You're gonna have to beat me to em'." David replied, when he had heard Don's explanation.

"And me." Colby said, stepping forward so that he was side-by-side with David.

"Me too." Megan said as she also closed the gap till all of them were standing in a circle, looking at each other, and trying to give each other friendly support.

"We're all a family Don, and we're here to support one another. When one of us goes down, we all suffer from it." Megan said.

Don lowered his gaze, not wanting to meet his friend's gaze since he knew what she was talking about.

David sighed and focused on his boss as he said, "What we're trying to say is that you don't have to suffer alone."

Slowly Don raised his face, and amidst the few tears that had streaked down his face, there was a small smile gracing his face as well.

"Thanks guys." He said softly, before he reached up and wiped the tears away.

Nodding their heads, each one of them gave Don a pat on the shoulder before they moved out of the bank and towards their Suburban's.

After that, they all split up.

Don and Megan went to the jewalry store, while David and Colby went to the supermarket to look around and gather evidence.

While they were driving to the jewalry store, Don was busy thinking about the evidence that they had received.

"We know that they took the ten and fifty dollar bills..plus some gold. Why? Why the ten and fifty dollar bills and not all of it?" Don asked.

"Maybe the bills were counterfeit." Megan guessed as she looked out at the darkened streets of L.A.

Don scrunched up his eyebrows at Megan's answer as he said, "All of them?!"

"Maybe not all of them, but it would explain why they did it." She replied evenly, before throwing a glance in Don's direction.

Don nodded his head as he turned a corner on to 122 Street and Hefner Parkway.

"Yeah it would, but who knows, they might have done it for the fun of it!" He replied.

Megan shook her head as she continued to think about what had happened so far.

After several minutes she finally spoke again.

"I don't think that's it Don. Think about it. Charlie is shot, and then the stores are robbed. Coinsidence?"

"Are you saying that Charlie was shot so that he'd be out of the way?!" Don asked as his anger started to boil even more towards the perps.

_'If what Megan said is true, the minute I find those bastards I'm gonna shoot em' for the pain they caused me and my family! No one shoots at me or my brother ever!'_ Don thought before he sighed and thought back to last year when something like this had almost happened.

_'If David hadn't of been standing there then Charlie wouldn't have survived. God why does this keep happening?! I'm supposed to keep my brother safe but how? He's safer in a classroom with chalk in his hands than at the scene of a crime, where the threat of a gunman is still present. I never should have brought him in to work with my team in the first place! That way he'd stay safe...alot more safer than he was tonight!'_

As Don pulled to a stop outside the jewalry store, he promised himself that no matter what he would go to see Charlie after he was finished up there.

Charlie was more important to him than his job with the FBI, and that was saying alot, because Don loved his job but, he loved his brother...his family even more.

With that promise sealed, Don and Megan exited the Suburban and headed the few feet to the entance of the jewalry store.


End file.
